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May I Touch Your Child?

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An interesting article was forwarded my way by Joshua Bronfman that highlights the growing issue of adults touching children in an educational setting.
 
See what you think:
Some Ottawa parents say a local school board's hands-off policy has gone too far after it forced a popular choir director to quit. Since September, Uwe Lieflander has offered the Sparrows Choir Program in four Catholic elementary schools as part of a pilot project.
 
He teaches children as young as six to sing sacred musical selections and Gregorian chants, and currently delivers the program to students in four other Ontario and Quebec school boards.
 
Lieflander takes a hands-on approach with young singers, often adjusting shoulders and heads or tapping sternums to help children learn proper posture and singing techniques. He sometimes plays tag with students to loosen them up, sometimes lifting a child off his or her feet for a few moments.
 
But after receiving one complaint from a parent, Lieflander says Ottawa's Catholic School Board told him he could have no physical contact with students if he wanted the choir program to continue.
 
His flat-out refusal to obey the board's command goes beyond the choir and seems to strike at the heart of society's growing distrust of physical contact between adults and children. "I don't want to take part in this culture of fear that is out there," Lieflander said, citing the examples of dance teachers or sports coaches, both of whom may also need to touch children during lessons or training.
 
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Choirs+close+after+parent+complains+hands+method/4997814/story.html#ixzz1QUdeH5RN

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  1. There are many educational situations where appropriate touch enhances learning. One way to handle this question is to start the year with a hand-out for parents to sign and return, stating that appropriate touch will be used to help students learn (skills x,y,z), and designating what appropriate touch is (e.g. on shoulders, on head, on the arm, etc.) Offer parents the opportunity to discuss it with the teacher if there are concerns. The only way to get schools out of the culture of fear is through education (for parents and children) about why touch is a teaching tool and what kinds of touch are appropriate (as opposed to “all touch in inappropriate”).

  2. Once again, the “culture of fear” has struck.  Our politicians play on this constantly; the “social scientists” and guardians of “political correctness” reinforce this.  Our children have no idea what a proper physical contact is because we’re teaching them that ANY contact is wrong.  And then we wonder why the society is so full of separateness and disconnectedness?  Parents, teach your children to be aware of what’s wrong, but not to fear what’s right – and Mr. Lieflander is quite right:  eventually, we will never come near each other in any sense because we are afraid that the 1% who are evil and don’t know how to do it right have overwhelmed the rest of us.  Time for us all to push back and let our children (and ourselves) have the right to physical contact, especially if it’s to teach something that is so physical by its very nature – sports, dance, music.
     
    Ron Duquette

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